Social Services

Lots of sites let you keep track of your friends. The problem now is keeping track of all the ways to keep track.

By

Vauhini Vara

Updated June 9, 2008 11:59 p.m. ET

For many people, the explosion of online media has been a mixed blessing. Thanks to email and instant messaging, blogs, video and photo sites, social-networking sites and the like, it's now much easier to stay connected to what's happening in the world and among friends. But it can be a nightmare to keep track of it all.

So-called RSS feeds offer a partial solution. This technology allows a user to create a Web page that automatically receives updates from chosen blogs, news sites and other Web pages, so the user doesn't...